Boots : Hammered, sewn : navy, black, brown ; Ht: 15,4 cm x W: 7 cm x De: 16,2 cm
Other Title Information
Clothing, Footwear
Date
[ca. 1948]
Physical Condition
Good
Notes
Pair of handmade navy cloth and black leather child’s boots with light brown lining. Each boot has 2 leather straps, metal buckles and hand-hammered leather soles. Narrative: These baby boots belonged to the donor, Max Beer. He was born to Genia and Leo Beer. Genia (Gitla) Paris Eizenberg Beer was born on July 7, 1916 in Radom Poland to Chaim Mordechai and Ruchla Paris. She had two sisters, Devora and Freindel, and five younger brothers. Her parents and siblings were all killed during the Holocaust, with the exception of one sister who went to Palestine in the late 1930s. Genia had been married to Israel Einzenberg with a young child when war broke out. Both were killed. During the war she was incarcerated in the Skarzysko-Kamienna labor camp for three years. After the war she met her second husband, Leo (Leyb) Beer. Leo Beer was born in 1908 in Uhniv, Poland. He joined the Soviet Army and was wounded in a German attack where he lost the use of his left arm. He was evacuated to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and survived the war there. His two brothers and mother were killed in the Holocaust. His father, who had immigrated to Canada in the late 1920s, survived. Leo went back to Poland after the war, where he met Genia. In 1946, antisemitic pogroms in Poland led them to flee toward the East through Czechoslovakia. They settled in the Displaced Persons camp of Pocking, in Germany. Max was born on May 18, 1947. The Beer family arrived in Canada on January 18, 1949.